Introduction

The Environment & Forest department is situated in the HRD/ MTI building at Anand Vihar, Burla. Upto 2016 (March), it was only the Environment department. Later in 2016, the Forest department & Monitoring of Mine Closure Activities and in 2018 IMS Cell were merged with the Environment department. This department is under the control of Director (Tech./ P&P), MCL.

Activities

• Obtaining Environment Clearance from MoEF & CC.
• Obtaining Forest Clearance from MoEF & CC.
• Obtaining NoC for groundwater abstraction from CGWA, New Delhi.
• Obtaining Hazardous Waste Authorization from SPCB.
• Obtaining Consent to Establish & Operate from SPCB, Odisha.
• Compliance of EC & FC Conditions and submission of reports to MoEF & CC Regional Office.
• Satellite based Monitoring of Land use during Mining.
• Generation of regular environmental monitoring data as per ‘Environment (Protection) Act 1986’ in technical association with RI-VII, CMPDIL
• Conducting Environmental Auditing in all operating mines of the company, collection of data and preparation of statutory Environmental (Audit) Statement
• Taking-up environment related R&D/ S&T studies in technical association with premier academic institutions/research institutions for various environmental issues.
• Timely submission of compliance reports against statutory returns in respect of ‘Bio-Medical Wastes Rule’,‘Hazardous Waste Management (Management & Handling & Trans boundary) Rules’ and ‘Battery (Management & Handling) Rules’.
• Mine Closure monitoring, coordinating for third party audit, preparation of various reports, ensuring timely deposit of mine closure fund in the respective escrow account and execution of escrow agreement with CCO, implementation of the mine closure guideline, processing for refund of the mine closure cost at the identified interval etc.
• Taking up Sustainable development activities and Plantation drives as per directives of Sustainable Development Cell, Ministry of Coal. Preparation of replies/clarifications/additional information against the issues related to environment, raised in Parliament questions, in respective State Assembly questions, by respective SPCB, by CPCB, by other interested parties/public bodies like villagers, NGOs through RTI and complaints at Project/Area/HQ Level.
• Planning for implementation of new directives from the MoEF & CC/ OSPCB/ other agencies, like installation of monitoring equipment for real-time monitoring of ambient air quality, water quality of the receiving/discharging water bodies.
• Arranging environmental awareness programs like celebration of Environment Week, World Environment Day, Vriksharopan Abhiyan and arranging Workshops & Seminars on environmental related topics at company headquarter level and coordination with Areas for arranging the same at Area and Project Level.

Awards

• Bharatpur OCP & Lakhanpur OCP were awarded Gold & Silver Award respectively in Metal & Mining Sector for Outstanding Achievement in Environment Management in the“17th Annual Greentech Environment Award 2016”, held at Bengaluru.
• MCL has been awarded with “42nd Coal India Environmental Excellence Award-2016” for its excellent contribution in Environmental Protection.
• Basundhara (W) OCP and Ananta OCP have won Greentech Environmental Award at 18th Annual Sustainability Conference 2019 of Greentech Foundation at New Delhi.
• MCL awarded the first prize in Environmental Management among subsidiaries for the year 2018-19, given during the 45th CIL Foundation Day Ceremony held on 01.11.2019.
• Balaram OCP and Lakhanpur OCP have won the Greentech Environmental Award for outstanding achievements in Environmental Protection at 20th Greentech Environmental Award 2020 at Mahabalipuram held on 11th February 2021
• MCL won second prize in Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) award conducted by CII, Odisha.
• Kulda OCP and Lingaraj OCP have won the Greentech Environmental Award for outstanding achievements in Environmental Protection at 21st Greentech Environmental Award at Mahabalipuram held on 26th November 2021.
• Samaleswari OCP and Lingaraj OCP have won the Greentech Environmental Award outstanding achievements in Environmental Protection at 22nd Greentech Environmental Award 2022 at Guwahati.